From Our Vaults:
Vittorio De Sica directed After the Fox, a self-reflexive heist comedy, starring Peter Sellers, Victor Mature and Britt Ekland.
Grade: C+ (**1/2* out of *****)
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Theatrical release poster by Frank Frazetta
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The script was written by Neil Simon and De Sica’s longtime collaborator Cesare Zavattini.
Despite its notable credits, the film was poorly received upon initial released. It has since gained a small cult for its in-jokes skewering movie stars, starstruck audiences, pretentious film critics and pompous directors, including DeMille, Fellini, Antonioni and De Sica.
Setting:
Outside of Cairo, Okra uses a bikini-clad accomplice as distraction, while hijacking $3 million in gold bullion. The thieves need a way to smuggle the two tons of gold bars into Europe. Aldo Vanucci, a master of disguise known as The Fox, seems to be the only man who can handle the assignment, but he is in prison.
Vanucci is reluctant to accept the job, fearing it will disgrace his mother and younger sister Gina (Britt Ekland). When his sidekicks inform him that Gina doesn’t come home after school, an enraged, overprotective Vanucci vows to escape.
Impersonating the prison doctor, he flees with his gang’s aid. At home, his mother tells him that Gina is working in the streets, which he takes to mean that Gina is a prostitute. But he then discovers that Gina is acting in low-budget film shooting on the streets.
Vanucci realizes that the smuggling job will improve his family’s life. He makes contact with Okra and his female accomplice and agrees to smuggle the gold into Italy. As two policemen are on Vanucci’s trail, he uses disguises to throw them off.
Posing as Italian neo-realist director named Federico Fabrizi, he intends to bring the gold ashore in daylight as scene in avant-garde film. To give the picture legitimacy, he cons Powell to star in the film, titled The Gold of Cairo (a play on The Gold of Naples, which De Sica directed in 1954).
Powell’s agent Harry is suspicious of Fabrizi, but his client wants to do the film. Fabrizi enlists the starstruck people of Sevalio, a tiny fishing village, to unload the shipment, but when the boat carrying the gold is delayed, to maintain the ruse, Fabrizi must shoot scenes for his phony film.
In prison, he escapes by impersonating the prison doctor again But when he attempts to remove his fake beard, Vanucci discovers the beard is real, exclaiming, “The wrong man has escaped!”
Cast
Peter Sellers as Aldo Vanucci / Federico Fabrizi
Victor Mature as Tony Powell
Britt Ekland as Gina Vanucci / Gina Romantica
Martin Balsam as Harry Granoff
Akim Tamiroff as Okra
Maria Grazia Buccella as Okra’s sister
Maurice Denham as The Chief of Interpol
Paolo Stoppa as Polio
Tino Buazzelli as Siepi
Mac Ronay [it] as Carlo
Lydia Brazzi as Mamma Vanucci
Lando Buzzanca as The Police Chief Rizzuto
Tiberio Murgia as 1st Detective
Francesco De Leone as 2nd Detective
Pier Luigi Pizzi as Prison Doctor
Enzo Fiermonte as Raymond
Carlo Croccolo as Salvatore
Nino Vingelli as a judge
Vittorio De Sica as himself
Credits:
Directed by Vittorio De Sica
Screenplay by Neil Simon (screenplay), Cesare Zavattini
Produced by John Bryan
Cinematography Leonida Barboni
Edited by Russell Lloyd
Music by Burt Bacharach, Piero Piccioni
Production company: Delgate / Nancy Enterprises
Distributed by United Artists
Release date: December 15, 1966
Running time: 103 minutes
Budget: $3 million
Box office $2,296,970 (rentals)
